We lose focus from time to time on just how incredible a community Tallahassee/Leon County is. The abundant assets we possess can drive an even brighter future for our residents.

A constant challenge we face is to develop a bold, clear vision that leverages those assets with focuses intent on creating economic opportunity across every ZIP code in Leon County.

I am the proud son of a life-long electrician and a school teacher who served more than 30 years in the Leon County public schools. Our family spent our early years in a trailer park in what people now call "the 32304.” We graduated to "the 32303” and I attended Belle Vue Middle School and Godby High School.

While I believe in — and am a product of — our public schools’ system, from K-12 through a college graduate degree, I also believe strongly we need to emphasize education opportunities that will diversify our workforce talent and economy.

We have tremendous “product” that can enable our community to compete at the highest levels economically. This product includes robust transportation and utility infrastructure and facilities; exceptional K-12, higher education and technical training institutions; access to high-quality health care facilities and services; a robust nonprofit sector that serves a variety of critical care and at-risk populations; and access to many unique regional recreational opportunities and natural resources.

Perhaps as important as any other asset is the targeted, sustained development of a pipeline of workforce talent — both homegrown and visiting — that businesses and industry can depend on.

Homegrown are our children who develop through our K-12 public and private school systems, including those who choose a GED, and those who become disconnected from school for a variety of reasons. Visiting are the estimated 41,000 undergraduate and graduate students at FSU, 11,000 students at FAMU, 12,400 students at TCC, and nearly 1,000 students enrolled at Lively Technical College.

The pipeline of current and future skilled workforce talent is almost always the No. 1 decision-driver for a company seeking to locate or relocate their business; it is also a leading decision-driver for existing businesses seeking to expand. This decision-driver cuts across every business sector from technology to professional services to advanced manufacturing to construction to logistics and distribution to aviation and beyond.

Our schools, parents and our entire community should emphasize the tremendous career opportunities in middle- and high-skill trades. The current and projected demands in these professions are undeniable, they pay extremely well, and they are an attainable career path.

Providing economic opportunity for one child, one family, one house at a time for each of our community ZIP codes is personal to me and, I hope, to our entire community.

As our community looks to the future and begins to make plans for how to increase prosperity, we must make increasing the volume and quality of skilled labor a top priority. I can think of no better way to build ladders for those looking to rise out of poverty and the difficulties of economic segregation.

Jeff Hendry is executive director of the John Scott Dailey Florida Institute of Government at Florida State University and the North Florida Economic Development Partnership. Reach him at jhendry@fsu.edu.